


Thought Police

by EchoInTheSilence



Series: Not Just Another Case [9]
Category: Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Numb3rs, The Mentalist
Genre: Case Fic, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-05-02 09:36:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14541843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoInTheSilence/pseuds/EchoInTheSilence
Summary: When two FBI agents disappear in the middle of New York City, it becomes clear that a dangerous enemy is out for revenge. As lives hang in the balance, it will take the best minds in law enforcement to find the missing agents. But with emotions running high and the enemy making it clear they've only just begun, even the best of the best will find themselves pushed to the limit in pursuit of the critical answer.





	1. Long-Distance Call

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine.
> 
> Content warnings on this story are extremely mild (as in, the content is extremely mild), but there are a few moments that may be difficult for some readers. I will post chapter-specific content warnings as needed. Please proceed at your own discretion.
> 
> Minor and Background Characters/Relationships (from tags) are as follows:
> 
> "Minor Characters" - Alan Eppes; Casey Novak (L&O SVU); Mike Logan; Carolyn Barek
> 
> "Background and Cameo Characters" - Olivia Benson (L&O SVU); Rafael Barba (L&O SVU); Megan Reeves; David Sinclair
> 
> "Minor or Background Relationships" - Alex Eames/Bobby Goren; Charlie Eppes/Amita Ramanujan; Patrick Jane/Teresa Lisbon

Some small part of Alex, some part buried deep down, realized how fruitless her pursuit was likely to be, but she simply couldn't stop. She had to do _something_ , and right now, this was the only something she could do. Ever since the terrifying call she'd received two days earlier, since Mike Logan had told her that Carolyn Barek had never made it home, she'd been in near-constant action. Following the brushoffs she'd gotten from both local and federal authorities, she'd sat down with Carolyn's contact list, dialing number after number in hopes that someone might listen.

She glanced over at the next number on the list, punching it into the phone, holding her breath as it rang. One, two, three times...then an annoyed-sounding voice. " _Eppes._ "

"Mr. Eppes? My name is Alex Eames. We've never met -"

" _You don't say_ ," he replied sarcastically. " _Do you have any idea what time it is?_ "

Alex glanced over at her clock."It's after eight-thirty." Now _she_ was annoyed.

There was a momentary pause. " _Eight-thirty? Where the hell are you?_ "

"What?" She glanced back at the phone display, only then noticing the unfamiliar area code that she had punched in on autopilot. "New York," she said more gently, finally realizing her mistake. "Where are you?"

" _LA, where it's currently five-thirty in the morning_ ," he groused.

"Damn," she hissed. "I am _so_ sorry. I wasn't thinking about the time zone issue. I can call back in a few hours..."

" _Wait_ ," he said, his annoyance now tinged with amusement. " _If you're going to wake me up at this hour, you might at least tell me why._ "

"Carolyn Barek." She almost whispered her partner's name. "You know her?"

" _Yeah, I know Agent Barek_." Concern was creeping into his tone. " _But why are you calling me about her now?_ _Has something happened?_ "

"She's missing," Alex said bluntly, "and I can't get local authorities to do anything about it."

" _What?_ " All trace of irritation disappeared from his voice at this news. " _How long?_ "

"Thirty-eight hours, give or take. I watched her get in her car, but she never made it home."

There was a brief pause. " _What can I do?_ "

"I - I don't know," she admitted. It was the first time she'd gotten that far. "I guess I'm kind of grasping at straws here. I just - I don't believe there's a benign explanation here, but no one will take it seriously. The local PD is insisting on treating it like a missing woman case, not a missing agent. My supervisor says to give it a few days and see if she turns up. Only --"

" _Only you're not sure you have a few days to_ _spare._ " He now sounded completely alert.

"Yeah. Exactly."

" _Let_ _me make some calls_. _I know a lot of people who know a lot of people. Maybe I can get someone to take some kind of action. What's her assignment?_ "

"Joint Terrorism Task Force, New York office," Alex said, feeling like she was letting out a breath she'd been holding for a day and a half.

" _And -- can you remind me of your name? I'm afraid I kind of...didn't quite register it._ "

"I don't blame you. I hardly gave you a chance to wake up before I said it." She chuckled a bit. "Alex Eames. Lieutenant Alex Eames. I'm Carolyn's partner."

" _Lucky you_ ," he said lightly, a smile evident in his voice. " _I'll be in touch, Lieutenant. I promise._ "

Alex was smiling slightly as she hung up the phone, but she couldn't keep it up for long. Carolyn's empty desk seemed to stare over at her. She was grateful beyond words for the man's help, but it still didn't answer the fundamental question. _What the hell happened to Carolyn?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's the start of a new adventure! For those who are coming to this through the greater series, yes, this is a crossover with some CI is the "primary" universe if you will, and I'll do my best to explain the characters from the other two universes (because this links to my larger L&O series), but it's not straight CI. It's going to be a fun ride, so stick around!


	2. No Coincidence

It was difficult to distinguish "unusually serious" from their boss' normal stoicism, but one look at her husband confirmed to Agent Teresa Lisbon that her instincts were right on track. If anyone could tell the difference, it was Patrick Jane, and the serious expression on the consultant's face made it clear that he was picking up on something from Cho. The team rookie, meanwhile, was looking anxiously back and forth, clearly waiting for something to happen. Teresa smiled to herself. _Oh, to be young and excitable._

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long. Their boss stepped into the office, pulled the door shut, and turned to face his assembled team. "I'll get right to it. We've got a missing agent."

"And good morning to you too, Cho," Jane said lightly.

"Agent John McNeil." The Asian man continued as though he hadn't even heard his consultant speak, tacking an FBI personnel photo to the board at the front of the room. "He was visiting his sister's family in New York. Went out to do some sightseeing and that was the last time anyone saw him. He no-showed on his reservation for a tour bus."

"I take it that means we're headed to New York?" That was Wylie, now sitting completely still and focused on the picture.

"Flight leaves in four hours," Cho replied by way of confirmation. "In the meantime, we'll run down all the background we can. Let's get to it."

xxxxxxxxx

"Morning, Boss."

Don furrowed his brow slightly at his junior agent's cheerful greeting. "Okay, Bentencourt, what did you do now?"

She chuckled. "Come on, Boss. I've been here over six years, and you're still so suspicious."

"Damn straight, I'm suspicious," he teased. "Like you said, I've known you for six years."

"You walked right into that one," another voice piped up from the next cubicle, and they both turned to see Colby Granger grinning behind them as he sipped from a cup of coffee.

The young woman looked behind Colby, seeking out the fourth member of the team, who responded by laughing and shaking her head. "You're on your own there, Nikki."

Her lips pulled in a mock pout. "Aw, Warner. I thought us girls were supposed to stick together."

Liz Warner only laughed, turning back to her desk, frowning at something she saw on her screen. "Hey, Don. Didn't you work with John McNeil a couple of years ago?"

"McNeil?" He turned to face Liz. "Yeah, special assignment a couple of years ago. I think he went to Austin when the assignment was finished. Why?"

"According to this, he's been reported missing."

"What?" Don had been in the process of sitting down, but at Liz's words, he stood up so quickly that he nearly knocked his chair over. "When?"

"Reported last night; last seen yesterday morning. Why, what's wrong?"

"I got a call early yesterday morning." He ran a hand slowly through his dark hair. "Another member of that same team went missing three days ago, this time in New York."

"New York?" Colby replied, startled, as he peered over Liz's shoulder. "This says that McNeil was on vacation in New York when he disappeared."

Don frowned deeply. "Either that's one bizarre coincidence or it's not a coincidence, and I don't need a mathematician to tell me which is more likely. But call Charlie anyway," he added with a smirk in spite of the serious situation. "See if he's up to taking a trip to New York. I know the timing could be better, but I'm going to need him."

"You're going to New York?" Liz repeated a little incredulously. "Just...drop everything and go?"

"If I have to. These people were under my command on that assignment. I was responsible for their safety. So if this is related, and it looks like it is, then I have a responsibility to help sort it out."

A quick series of looks was exchanged between the three, and it was Colby who finally spoke up. "So, when do we leave?"

That brought Don up short. "Uh, we?"

"Well, this sounds an awful lot like a case to me," he explained with a kind smile. "And working a case without your team...well, that doesn't make a lot of sense, now does it?"

Liz and Nikki were nodding in agreement with their coworker's statement, and Don felt an unexpected rush of emotion. Despite Colby's lighthearted explanation, he knew they were really taking this on because it mattered to him, and that touched him deeply. Biting down on his inner lip, he spoke quickly to cover the uncharacteristic sentiment. "All right, then, but you'd better be ready to go, I'm not waiting on anyone. Colby, call Charlie, fill him in. Nikki, touch base with Operations, see how quick they can get five seats on a flight to NYC. Liz, pull everything they have on the case so far. I'm going to touch base with my contact."

A chorus of "on it" followed him to his desk.

xxxxxxxxx

"We're next up in the rotation already?" Zach asked a little bemusedly. "Major Case must be busy; we just closed our last case last night."

"Well," Captain Hannah admitted, "it's not exactly your turn, but this case requires a top-level security clearance, and you're the only pair in this office who both have it." He laid the file on his desk. "An FBI agent has turned up missing."

"FBI agent?" Serena repeated. "Isn't that usually the Feds' jurisdiction?"

"Higher-ups made the call," the Captain replied, "and ours is not to question why. Although, that does bring me to one more point. Our missing agent hails from the Austin office, and they're sending up a team to work with us on this. Which is another reason it's good it's the two of you," he added. "The last thing anyone wants is a jurisdictional fight."

"Of course," Zach replied immediately. "When are they due in?"

"I talked to the lead agent just before they boarded their plane," Hannah replied. "Their departure was on time, so they should be landing at Kennedy in about an hour. Meanwhile," he handed the file to his detectives, "you two know what to do."

xxxxxxxxx

"And we are _here_!" Patrick Jane announced excitedly. "Ah, lovely New York City."

"We're here to _work_ ," Lisbon reminded him as they stepped out of the SUV and onto the front steps of One Police Plaza. "So try to contain your enthusiasm, would you?"

"Can't help it," he replied, turning in a sweeping, exaggerated arc and pulling her into his arms so he could whisper the next part for her ears only. "In the last two months, it's like I'm seeing everything with new eyes. Everything's brighter and more incredible."

She couldn't help but smile at that. Ever since their wedding night, the night she had also told him she was pregnant, it was as though he'd discovered a whole new level of joy, as if the last vestiges of the horrors he'd lived through had finally evaporated, allowing him to fully live his life again after so many years. "I know," she whispered back. "But we have a case. So focus," she concluded as she stepped back from his embrace.

"Are you two coming?" Wylie called over his shoulder.

"Yeah, we're right behind you," Lisbon called back a bit irritably, wrapping her arm around her husband's waist. "Come on," she added to him. "You'll have time to take in the, uh, not-fresh air after we crack this case."

The couple followed Wylie and Cho into an elevator, riding up to the eleventh floor. A tall, sandy-haired man stood in the foyer when the elevator doors opened. "Agent Cho?"

The team leader stepped forward. "That's me."

"I'm Captain Joe Hannah, we spoke on the phone." He shook Cho's hand briskly, but there was a genuine kindness in the gesture all the same. "Right this way. My detectives are already working with the file." He stopped beside a pair of desks that faced each other. One chair was empty, though the desk was covered with papers; a brunette woman sat behind the other, looking up as her Captain approached with the Austin team in tow. "Where's your partner?"

"Right here." Several heads turned towards the source of the new voice; a tall, thin man approached the desks, carrying a cup of coffee in each hand. "Figured we'll be here awhile." He handed one of the cups to the woman.

"Agent Cho," Hannah continued, "this is Detective Zach Nichols and Detective Serena Stevens, they'll be working with you and your agents on this case."

"Agent Lisbon, Agent Wylie." Cho indicated each member of his team as he spoke their name. "And Patrick Jane, he's a consultant with my team." The lead agent's phone chose that moment to chirp in his pocket. "Excuse me." He stepped to the side, putting the device to his ear. "Cho."

"Hey," Wylie asked a little shyly, holding out his laptop bag. "Is there, um, is there somewhere I can set up?"

"Conference room one," the Captain offered. "It's already set up for this case."

"You might want to set up a few more tables." That was Cho, having rejoined the group. "We're not going to be the only agents working on this case. There's a team from LA on their way up here to join the investigation."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a whirlwind, I know, but I'm sure it's a whirlwind for the characters too! The next chapter will get more in-depth, this was really about setting up the different teams' connection to this case and how they all intersect. (Yeah, it's a big cast.)
> 
> I actually have no idea who would investigate a missing FBI agent, but Major Case didn't seem completely out of left field, and I wanted to incorporate the Major Case characters into the story as well.
> 
> This chapter references the Mentalist episode White Orchids.


	3. Confluence Of Factors

"Why is a team from LA coming to New York to work on the case of a missing agent from Austin?" Wylie asked. "You'd think if they wanted more people on it, they'd start with the local office."

"Who knows?" Cho gave a slight shrug. "The call came from Abbott in DC, and he didn't have many details. Something about the lead agent on that team having worked with McNeil a few years ago. Oh, and he says hi."

Jane tilted his head slightly, considering this. "McNeil was a bit of a floater, wasn't he? He worked in multiple offices for years before settling in Austin, and we haven't heard word one from any of them."

"Nor would we expect to," Lisbon added. "Agents move around in the Bureau, it's par for the course. If everyone who's worked with a given agent turned up when something like this happened, we'd be overwhelmed."

"So why does this guy - this entire team - decide to fly all the way across the country to work on this case?"

"Because it's not just one missing agent."

Seven heads turned at once towards the source of this new voice; a short, blonde woman standing a few feet behind the team. Cho eyed the newcomer critically. "And you are?"

"Lieutenant Alex Eames, from the Joint Terrorism Task Force," Zach supplied, a smile splitting his face. "I didn't know you were working this case."

"I wasn't exactly. It goes back to what I just said." She turned to face the entire group. "McNeil isn't the only missing agent. Four days ago, my partner, Agent Carolyn Barek, left work and never made it home."

"What?" Cho's head snapped around to look at her. "Why didn't we hear anything about this?"

"Because the consensus between the local PD and my supervisors is that her disappearance is unlikely to be related to her work," Alex replied bitterly.

"Based on what?" Zach asked.

A frustrated sigh escaped Alex's lips. "Who knows? I would think that when an FBI agent goes missing, the first question most people would ask would be if her work could be connected to her disappearance, but not so with Carolyn. Which brings me to your missing agent."

"McNeil," Lisbon supplied.

"Right. He and Carolyn were on the same special assignment in 2010 - the same special assignment that was led by the lead agent of that LA team, Agent Eppes. We only spoke briefly, but he thinks, and I agree, that this is probably more than a coincidence."

"I'd tend to agree with that assessment," Cho put in. "If we'd known from the start that there was a second agent missing, we would've probably come to the same conclusion." He glanced over to his team and the two NYPD detectives. "Let's hold off on a full briefing until the last team gets here, or we'll just have to do it over anyway. Meanwhile, we'll keep working with what we have, start thinking through preliminary strategy."

xxxxxxxxx

"I'm not interested in having a discussion!" Alex all but shouted into the phone. "The task force is taking over this case, that's just a fact!"

"Lieutenant Eames?" a tentative voice piped up in the momentary quiet.

"I want that file here in two hours, and I don't want to hear any excuses!" Alex slammed her phone down. "Figures. They barely looked at the case when they had full jurisdiction, but now that I'm asking for it, they're getting all territorial."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Lisbon said kindly. "I've seen this God only knows how many times before. They'll talk big and get angry, but I've yet to come across an office that actually tried to hold onto the case when push came to shove."

"Lieutenant Eames?" The voice was a bit more insistent now.

"Yes?" She regretted the harsh tone of her voice as soon as the words left her mouth. "Sorry, sorry. It's just been a rough morning. How can I help you?"

"There's an Agent Eppes here to see you."

"Good." _At least_ something _is going right today._ "Send him over here."

The officer nodded and headed back to the front desk, and Alex turned just in time to see the newcomer walk into the room. Even without the announcement, she thought, she almost certainly would have known who this man was. Though he didn't come across as the type of person who felt the need to broadcast his position of power, there was an air of leadership that seemed to surround him.

He stopped in front of Alex's desk, seeming to observe her just as she had him. "Lieutenant Eames?"

She nodded, extending her hand to shake his. "Please, it's Alex. And you must be Agent Eppes."

"Don." He smiled as he shook her hand, before looking around at the people clustered nearby. "Looks like you've got quite a crew assembled here. All these people on our case?"

"These six are." She gestured towards Zach, Serena, and the four from Austin, beckoning them to come over at the same time. "Everyone, this is Agent Eppes, from L.A."

"Don, please." He gave the group a smile. "Never been a big fan of formalities between teams."

Zach's phone chose that moment to ring loudly. He glanced down at the display and grimaced when he saw the number. "Excuse me a second."

Don turned back towards Alex. "Speaking of teams, my own is waiting just downstairs. I just wanted to make sure everything was good to go before I brought them all up here. Mind if I...?"

"Of course not." She gave him a moment to send a quick text before speaking again. "How many of you are there?"

"Five total. Four agents, myself included, and a consultant."

"You know," she said, looking from him to Cho with a small chuckle, "New York _does_ have consultants of our own."

He smiled too. "Not quite like our guy, I bet. You'll see."

A voice floated in from the elevator bay at that moment. "...just saying, it would've fit in the overhead bin. They didn't have to gate-check it."

"It didn't fit in the box," an exasperated female voice replied. "You saw that, you were there."

"Yes," the first voice replied, "I _know_ it didn't fit in the box. But the luggage compartment size of a standard Boeing 757 is such that mathematically..."

"Charlie." That was another male voice, laughing under the words. "One way or the other, it's done. We're off the plane, you got your bag back. Give it a rest."

Four people stepped into the entryway, and Don beckoned them over. "Come on, guys. We're good."

"We've set up the conference room for this case," Serena added to the newcomers. "There should be space in there for everyone."

"Well, almost everyone," one of the women on Don's team commented wryly. "We might need to set up a separate Charlie room." This was directed at another member of her team, a dark-haired man several inches shorter than her.

The man almost looked affronted for a moment, then he shrugged, allowing a smile to cross his face. "Maybe."

Alex smiled too. "Well, let's assemble everyone in there for now to do a quick round of introductions and get everyone up to speed. If we need, um, breakout rooms later, we'll take care of that then."

As the group began moving towards the conference room, Alex heard a rushed set of footfalls behind her and turned to see Zach slipping his phone back into his pocket with a tired and frustrated expression. "Sorry about that," he said in an undertone, clearly speaking mostly to Serena.

"Not your fault," she said back, matching his tone. "We all have those days."

He sighed under his breath. "I'd have a lot less of them if people could actually pay attention to what I say the first time. So," he added at a more normal volume, "what did I miss?"

"Nothing of note. Well, unless you count the fact that Agent Eppes' team walked in having a debate about overhead compartments and carryon luggage sizes."

Zach gave a short laugh. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah," Alex piped up, realizing the heavy part of the conversation was over and it would be okay to interject. "Don was laughing, too. Seemed like he was used to it."

Serena smiled, but Zach was already on to the next thing, something else having caught his attention. "Who's that? The shorter guy with the curly hair?"

"We haven't done introductions yet," Serena replied. "I peg him for the team's consultant, though. He just doesn't read 'FBI Agent' the way the others do. Why?"

He shrugged. "Weird coincidence, I guess. He just reminds me of someone I knew once upon a time."

By this point, they were at the door to the conference room, and Serena gently pushed her partner into a chair. "Come on, Zach. Time to focus on the case now. You can interrogate him on possible connections to people from your past later."

Zach nodded absently, his attention still fixed on the man in question. _Damn, he really looks like - no, it can't be,_ he chided himself silently. _What on Earth would he be doing in New York at all, let alone -_

But that thought was cut off abruptly when the younger man turned to face him. The consultant did an immediate double take, no doubt running through some of the same thoughts Zach had been just moments earlier, but now the detective was sure. _A coincidence all right...but not the one I thought it was._

xxxxxxxxx

"As far as we know," Alex began, "the last person to see or speak to Carolyn - Agent Barek - was me. We left the building together, walked out to the garage. We said a quick goodbye, she got in her car and I got in mine. I saw her car pull out behind me, but we turn different directions out of the garage, so..." she shrugged. "I didn't even realize anything was wrong until Mike, her boyfriend, called me three hours later."

"Seems a little strange that he'd call you that quickly," Jane commented. "Guy dates a cop and gets worried when she's late coming home? Seems to me that's part of the package."

"That was my first thought too," Alex admitted, "especially because Mike is retired NYPD himself, he'd know if anyone would about the unpredictability of things. But what was worrying him was that they had plans and she hadn't gotten in touch to tell him things had changed. According to him, having to reschedule is par for the course, but her just not showing up without so much as a text isn't. And he'd already tried to call her, with no luck. I think by the time he called me, he was just trying to convince himself that she was working late, her text hadn't been delivered, and her phone had died." She shrugged. "It's like I said. He was a cop, a detective, and he hasn't lost that instinct; he probably never will. He knew enough about the situation to recognize that something was off, and he acted on that instinct." She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before returning to the narrative. "We took it to Missing Persons that night, but they blew us off. No matter how many times I pointed out that she was an FBI agent and therefore it was a lot more likely that something bad happened to her than it would be with a member of the general public, they insisted that, and I quote, 'a woman who goes off the radar for a few hours isn't anything to get upset about'. I would've pushed it further but I could tell it wouldn't do any good."

"And the FBI?" Don asked from where he sat on the edge of a desk. "You said they hadn't been very helpful either."

"Similar issue," Alex said grimly. "Carolyn had, um, a bit of a rough start when she started working for the Feds ten years ago - she was a transfer from NYPD. She never jeopardized a case, she's much too professional for that, but she didn't try to hide how unhappy she was with the change of agency that was basically forced on her either. She got past that more than a few years ago, but some superiors have long memories. One all but said outright that she's probably the FBI equivalent of AWOL."

Don shook his head, frowning. "That's not the Carolyn Barek I know. Being vocal about a transfer she didn't appreciate - that I have no trouble believing. But upset or no, she's incredibly dependable. Even the FBI knows that, or they would never have assigned her to a case on the level of the one we worked."

"Well, they weren't exactly hearing arguments. That's why I called you."

"And I made a few calls," he said, picking up the story. "Then I get in the next morning and hear that McNeil is also missing."

"McNeil was vacationing here in New York." Cho picked up the narrative, taking Alex's place at the front of the room as she sat back down. "Visiting his sister and her family. He was supposed to spend a day doing the tourist thing and then go out to dinner with her and her kids. She started to worry when he didn't show for dinner and, like with Barek, she couldn't get in contact with him."

"I guess it is theoretically possible for it to be a coincidence," Don added, "but it's not very likely, right, buddy?" That last was directed to Charlie.

"Coincidences do happen," the younger man replied. "But the probability is...very low, especially given the established characteristics of the parties involved. Once we rule out the possibility that one or both of them disappeared of their own volition...it's much more likely that the two cases are connected that that this is a coincidence."

"So the connection between the two is this assignment," Lisbon said. "At least, that's what we're thinking?"

"It's the only connection I could find," Don confirmed. "I was pretty sure I remembered that they had never met each other before they were assigned to me, but I went back and cross-checked their histories to confirm. Those six months were the only time their paths ever crossed."

"Which brings us to..." Alex prompted.

Don looked around the assembled crowd. "I had to pull strings just to get clearance to tell you all the details. What I'm about to tell you stays in this room, understand?" The question was met by a series of nods. "Okay. The case involved what we classified as a domestic terrorist organization. Specifically, the group was anti-government, and even more anti-government spending. I won't disgust you with the details of what they went around spewing, but suffice to say, the gist of it was that the government was leeching off of hardworking Americans to prop up the weak and lazy."

"Nothing we haven't heard before," Jane muttered.

"Not quite," Don replied, "though I'm sure some of the mainstream media talking points fueled that fire. But this was like that times five, with a heavy dose of eugenics thrown in - as in, people who couldn't survive without some form of assistance shouldn't have the right to survive at all. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. They'd been at it for years, but as long as it was only talk, there was very little that any government agency could do. Of course, that all changed when intelligence dug up information indicating that the group was working on a plan for simultaneous attacks at multiple locations across the country."

"And that's where the FBI comes in," Lisbon surmised.

Don nodded. "Because of the severity of the threat, a special team was assembled - essentially handpicked by the FBI top dogs. Four of us in total, though we had access to pretty much any resource we needed to complete the assignment. Barek was the team's profiler, McNeil was our tech expert. Both of them ended up being vital to the operation."

"Seeing as I never heard word one about anything like this on the news," Jane interjected, "I assume you were successful in preventing this planned attack?"

Another nod. "It took months, like I said, but we were eventually able to crack the organization structure and subsequently collapse it."

"By collapse," Lisbon asked, "you mean..."

"Make a _lot_ of arrests," Don confirmed. "Coordinated with local offices all over the country to take down as many people as we could at once, before they could warn each other, while we went after the leaders."

"But there's a problem," Charlie, who had been silently taking in the briefing up to that point, piped up. "Distributed autonomous network."

"Say _what_?" Alex replied.

"Distributed autonomous network." Charlie stood, making his way to the front of the room. "Independent parts working collectively, but without lateral communication. It's, um, it's like a tree."

"A tree," Jane repeated skeptically.

"Yeah." Charlie appeared undaunted by the other consultant's skepticism. "Every tree begins from a single source - the trunk. Now, as the tree grows, branches begin to form. These branches then exhibit the same behavior, splitting off into more branches, which split off again and so on. So, if you were to start from a given leaf and work backwards, you would encounter a number of splits between that leaf and the trunk. The same holds true for any other leaf, except that the path you trace back from that specific leaf is likely to be different than it would be for a leaf a few feet higher up, or on the other side of the tree. Now, many large human groups operate in the same way - foundations, political organizations, clubs, even the FBI. An individual unit, like a team, is technically connected to the people who run the entire system, but the connection is...filtered, if you will, through a series of individuals. This allows for more effective and efficient distribution of work than if the people on top had to supervise each person individually."

"This normal for you?" Alex asked Don in an undertone.

He grinned in response. "Oh, yeah. Don't worry, it'll all make perfect sense in a minute."

"The difference," Charlie was saying, "between a normal group structure and a terror cell is the restriction of information. In this kind of organization, people only know who they're getting information from and who they're supposed to pass it to. So a person at the lowest level - a leaf, if you will - doesn't know who the person on top is or possibly even what the full mission is; they only know what their role is and who their contact is. Likewise, the leader of the organization only knows who his or her next-in-command people are, and similar information limits hold true for the people in the middle. Therefore, it would be almost impossible for anyone to identify every single individual in this group, because no one person knows all or even most of the pieces."

"I'll be damned," Alex whispered to Don. "You're right. It _does_ make sense."

"So," Zach said after a moment, "you think a branch might have fallen off this tree, so to speak?"

A grin split Charlie's face. "Not bad. And the short answer to your question is, yes, I think that's probable. I'd need a lot more data to even attempt to quantify the who and what of the situation, but assuming the recent kidnappings are related to the case Don and the team solved, it does seem likely that the perpetrators would be a small sub-group that was missed in the initial series of arrests."

"Wait a second," Alex broke in. "I think we're missing something. More specifically some _one_. Don, you said there were four people on your team. So far, I've only heard references to three - you, Barek, and McNeil. Where does the fourth agent fit in?"

"Ian?" the agent replied. "He's a tracker - a damn good one. The only member of the team I knew before the assignment started. Bureau brought him in for his experience in finding people who don't want to be found. It's kind of amazing, actually, how much the skills used to follow somebody over wild terrain can be translated to the less literal kind of hunting we were doing. I have to give my bosses credit, much as I hate to credit the pencil pushers with anything. They really did put together a top team. What," he added after a moment, seeming to pick up on Alex's train of thought, "you think whoever did this might come after him next?"

"It makes sense," Jane put in from his corner. "Why target only half the team? Unless there was some extra connection between Barek and McNeil - some part of the project just the two of them worked on -"

"There wasn't. Not that I can think of."

"Then they're probably targeting the whole team. Those were just the people they could get to the easiest."

"Which means," Alex picked back up, "that both of the remaining team members are potential targets. Where is this Ian now?"

"I don't know. I doubt many people do, really. Like I said, Ian's primary work is tracking fugitives. He could pretty much be anywhere."

The junior agent on Don's team let out a soft laugh. "I think Ian can take care of himself."

"Nikki's got a point," Don admitted, "but I'm not sure how much that'll matter. From what I remember, Barek's tough as nails too."

"She is," Alex confirmed.

"Now, Ian may be harder to _find_ ," he added, "but we have to assume they'd have a way of taking him down if they did. I'll call Quantico, get them to find someone to give Ian a heads-up next time he checks in."

"While you're at it," Charlie added, "see how much information you can get on where he is and where he may have been in the past month or so."

Alex frowned a bit. "No offense, but how does knowing where he's been help us?"

"None taken," he assured her. "And to answer your question, it's not about where he actually is. The real question is, where will these people be looking for him? It's more data on possible locations, and more data is always better. In the meantime, I can start analyzing the information already available. I have the case file; what would help would be information on Barek and McNeil's movements, both on the day they disappeared and the days leading up to it."

"I think we have that for McNeil," Cho said, "starting with when he landed in New York three days before the kidnapping."

"Yeah, that's good," Charlie replied.

"I can pull it together for Barek," Alex added. "I _was_ more focused on her cases than her physical movements, but it shouldn't be hard to get the information, now that I know I'm looking for it."

Another nod. "I'll start with McNeil, then. As soon as I have the other information, I'll expand the parameters." He cast a glance around the crowded conference room. "Uh, is there somewhere I can spread out a bit?"

Nikki chuckled lightly. "What did I tell you?"

"There's a smaller room we don't use much," Zach offered. "It's not a lot of space but it should give you what you need."

The two FBI team leaders, meanwhile, had been having a quick, whispered conference in one corner, and now Don turned back to the group. "We know that this is going to be a little bit of a challenge, since this group is made up of several teams that usually work as independent units, but we need to be working fully together on this, and Cho and I agree that the best way to do that is to have one person leading this combined team." He turned to Alex. "We're on your turf, Lieutenant, and we recognize that. What do you say?"

It took her a moment to process the unexpected request, but then she smiled. "Okay. Let's get to it. But," she added to Don and Cho, "I'd like to meet with the two of you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I had Charlie give a mini-lecture. Those who know Numb3rs had to be half-expecting it.
> 
> Distributed autonomous network is a theory that Charlie brings up in the Numb3rs episode Under Pressure; I put together the tree metaphor because I thought it worked better to explain the situation in this story than the one used in the episode (in which the network was much more limited).
> 
> I did also completely invent the concept of the organization that Don and the team were chasing. I wanted something completely out of left field (to avoid even hinting at any actual group) and that was what I came up with.
> 
> For those who watch Numb3rs, the past assignment is supposed to be the "Special Agent in Charge gig" that Don mentions in the series finale. I already had an outline for this story in the works when I saw the finale, and I wanted him to be able to stick with the team, but I thought a temporary assignment fit well enough and gave me a reason to bring Barek and an Austin agent into it.


	4. Finding Connection

You know," Charlie said with a wry smile, "until you introduced yourself, I was half-convinced that you weren't actually, well, you."

Zach laughed with a slight shake of his head. "I could say the same about you. Wow, what's it been, eleven years?"

"Eleven years, two months, and one week since you moved on from LA," Charlie replied immediately.

"Of course. No approximates around you, right?"

"Right," Charlie said with a grin that quickly faded. "And nine years, three months, eight days since you sent me that last email I never answered. I just...I didn't...and then I meant to, but I could never figure out what to say about all that time -" He stopped, drawing a breath to collect his thoughts. "My mom got sick," he said finally. "Cancer."

"Charlie, I'm sorry," Zach said softly.

The shorter man nodded once in acknowledgement. "I didn't - I didn't know how to handle it. I couldn't handle it. So I just sort of...shut the world out for awhile. Threw myself into math. And then after - after she died, I pretty much fell apart. It wasn't until about nine weeks later that I could even think about getting back to life. By then it had been over five months since your last email, and I didn't want to just write and fall back into the old rhythm like nothing had happened, but I couldn't figure out how to tell you, especially since I was still afraid to spend too much time dwelling on what had happened, so I just...let it go. I'm sorry."

"Don't. It's okay, I understand. Don't you remember? That's basically what I was doing in LA in the first place, trying to put some distance between myself and something I didn't know how to handle."

"I remember." Charlie gave a quick glance around the squad room. "That's a big part of why I was so surprised to see you here. I remembered you said you weren't a cop anymore."

Zach shrugged. "I was...I guess I was wrong. Or maybe lying to myself. At the time, the only way I knew how to deal with my problems was distance, so I created some distance. But I was never really happy about being away, from the city or from a job I'd come to love. In retrospect, I think that's why I moved around so much during that time. Maybe I just didn't want to admit to myself that leaving was almost as hard as staying would have been. But enough about me," he added after a few moments' slightly awkward silence. "What about you? You being here is at least as unexpected as me being here."

That got a laugh from Charlie. "Yeah, I guess from your perspective it would be. It's become so normal I forget sometimes how different it is from how I used to be."

"I take it the similarity in name between you and the lead agent is more than a coincidence?"

Charlie's smile nearly split his face in half. "He's my brother."

"Your brother?" Zach repeated incredulously. "The one you told me about?"

Charlie nodded. "He came back to LA when Mom got sick. Things changed. A lot. One day, about a year after Mom died, I looked at a map Don left on the table, got an idea...I had no idea how much my life was going to change in that moment. At first it was just a consult here and there, but within a few months it was almost a second full-time job."

"Because your first full-time job isn't enough."

Charlie laughed, shrugging. "Strange as it might sound, I enjoy it. I mean, I enjoy math on the academic level too, always have, but the impact is so abstract and limited. When I use math to find a kidnapped child or stop a bank robbery, there's an immediate and real impact to real people. It's kind of incredible."

Zach smiled knowingly. "Not strange at all. Not to me, anyway. So," he added, changing the subject, "I don't recall that ring you're wearing being on your hand while we were whiling away the hours playing chess. How long have you been married?"

"Four years." Another ear-to-ear grin. "Her name's Amita and she's a math professor too."

"And you didn't bring her along?" he teased.

"Are you kidding?" Charlie laughed. "It's the FBI. Hard enough to get them to pay for travel for one consultant, let alone two. Besides," he added, now almost quivering with excitement, "she's pregnant. I don't think a cross-country flight would have agreed with her."

Zach laughed too. "A wife _and_ a soon-to-be baby? I'm only gone a decade and look what happens." He gave his friend a gentle slap on the back. "Congratulations. When's she due?"

"Early January. But what about you? I don't see a ring...is there a girl in your life?"

"Well," he hedged, "literally, yes. But not in the way I think you meant it." He took a few steps over to his desk, reaching out to snag a framed photo and passing it to Charlie. "Andrea. The girl in my life."

He examined the photo for a long moment; Zach beaming as he held a small, black-haired girl in his arms. The girl was smiling too, arms around his neck and legs wrapped around his waist. "She's beautiful. How old?"

"Nine," he replied, now mirroring the proud smile Charlie had worn earlier.

" _Nine_?" Charlie repeated. "And you thought you'd missed a lot?"

The tall man laughed, shaking his head. "Not exactly. She's been on Earth for nine years, but she's only been mine for a year and change. That photo," he indicated the frame Charlie was holding, "that was taken on July eleventh of this year. The family court judge had just finalized the adoption. I was fostering for a year, almost to the day, before that."

"Wow." Charlie shook his head slightly, trying to wrap it around this new information.

"I know," Zach admitted. "It's about as far from what anyone, including me, expected from me as you can get."

"Hey." Charlie smiled knowingly. "Life doesn't always go the way we think it will. If you're happy -- and I can tell you are -- maybe it doesn't matter what you expected."

"No," Zach replied, stealing another glance at the photo as he set it back on his desk. "It doesn't matter."

xxxxxxxxx

"I need a basic layout on each of your teams," Alex explained to Don and Cho. "Who usually does what, what skills each person has, that sort of thing. Including consultants."

Cho spoke up first. "You might have noticed, but we're down a person at the moment. I just took over the team leader job and my spot hasn't been filled yet. In regards to what I do have: Lisbon is pretty well-rounded, I can use her pretty much anywhere I need someone. Before she came to the FBI, she ran a team at a state agency; she's more than capable of managing people effectively. Not that there's any shortage of that here," he added, deadpan, looking between Alex and Don. "Wylie's a computer expert. Doesn't mean I exclusively keep him in the office, but if you need someone to pull off some technical stunt, he's your guy. As for Jane -" Cho went silent for a moment, seeming to consider how exactly to describe the team consultant. "His skill is people," he began. "He's not quite a profiler, but he understands how people think, and he knows how to use that to do everything from helping a witness remember details to manipulating a suspect into revealing their guilt. The one thing to know, though, is that while he may work for the FBI, he doesn't really fall into the FBI hierarchy very well. He has his own way of doing things, his own code as it were. I admit," he added, "there's been a time or two where he was right and kept us from doing something we would have regretted. But, that aside, he needs someone to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't cross lines or get himself killed. Lisbon or I would probably be best; he actually listens to us. Sometimes."

"Understood," Alex replied, biting back a laugh. "Don?"

The agent in question turned towards her, having briefly looked away to hide a laugh of his own. "Right. My team. Well, they're all a pretty well-rounded bunch, picking up whatever's needed. I've worked with all of them for years. Officially, Liz is my second-in-command, and she's a good fit for it -- smart, tough, fast on her feet, and she's also good at not only picking up the little things that everyone else misses, but also figuring out what they mean. Colby -- Colby could have his own team by now several times over if he wanted it. Not that I'm complaining," he added. "He's a great agent to have around. He's got incredible tactical skills, but don't let the tough-guy act fool you, he can be incredibly patient and compassionate when the situation calls for it, and he's good at figuring out the best approach. He's usually my first choice to interview victims or freaked-out witnesses. Nikki's more of a hothead than the other two. Don't get me wrong, she's good at what she does, she just comes up a little short in the patience department sometimes. She's a great strategist, though, and I'm sure as hell not going to complain about having her watching my back."

"And Charlie?" Alex prompted when he fell silent. "I caught the fact you have the same last name; you two are what? Brothers? Cousins?"

"Brothers," Don confirmed. "Yeah. Charlie...Charlie's Charlie. Okay, so for your purposes, most important thing is that Charlie doesn't really do fieldwork in the conventional sense. Sometimes he'll go to a scene for analysis, but he doesn't really interview people or do that sort of thing. We just give him the data and let him go to work on it."

"So...wait a second," Alex interjected. "Forgive me, but...what exactly is it that Charlie does for you?"

Don let out a short laugh. "Sorry. I guess I skipped a few steps, huh? Charlie's a mathematician."

"What?"

"Yeah. Professor of Applied Mathematics, and boy does he ever apply it. He can analyze just about anything for patterns or hidden connections, give us new ideas to break the case -- pretty much anything data-related, we just sort of give him what we have and let him run with it. Fortunately for us, he's equally good at explaining things in ways you don't need a math degree to follow."

"So, the whole tree thing -"

"Yeah, that's normal," Don confirmed. "He's pretty good at translating that stuff for us - which is good, because when he starts using academic terms, the whole team gets lost pretty quickly. If he doesn't do it automatically, just ask him to clarify. And if he's working, just let him work unless you need to tell him something. When he gets in the zone, it's best to just let him run with it."

"Okay," Alex agreed. _He was right about one thing, I suppose. I don't think anyone local has a mathematician on the payroll._ "I'll start dividing up assignments."

xxxxxxxxx

"Okay," Alex said briskly. "Right now, what we seem to need most is more information. Zach, Serena, go and re-interview McNeil's sister, focusing this time on the days before he went missing. If you get anything that looks like a lead, run it down. Jane, I hear you've got a skill for helping people remember things they might have ignored; you and Lisbon see what you can do about the witnesses from tour bus pickup point; Cho, you've got the list of contacts, give Jane and Lisbon a hand tracking people down. Warner, Bentencourt, I need you two to retrace Carolyn's movements after she left the FBI. We're looking primarily for her car, registry and route info are here." She handed a folder to Nikki. "If you find the car - or anything else that could help - call CSU. Don, I need you to go back over the files, see what you can run down on anyone not in prison who might have connections to the group you broke up. Wylie, see what still exists in terms of internet chatter for this group. Do what you can to trace anything you come across. Granger, you're with me."

Colby approached Alex as the groups split off. "Okay, I'm with you. Where are we going?"

"We need to re-interview Mike, Carolyn's boyfriend," she said as they stepped into an elevator. "It's going to be a bit of a tricky interview. Don says you're good at navigating the waters on that kind of thing."

"Learned art," he demurred, "that's all. But what's the issue? He's the victim's boyfriend, and according to you a former cop. Isn't he on our side?"

As they emerged from One Police Plaza, Alex started for the driver's side of the SUV, then paused. "Sorry, did you want to drive?"

"No, it's okay." He opened the passenger's side door. "You know where we're going, anyway. I guess you don't ride with people much anymore, what with running a unit."

"It's not just that. Before I got the promotion, I worked with a partner for ten years who liked to use the time we spent driving on analysis. I would drive, he would think. By the second year, it was just automatic that I'd get in the driver's seat. And to answer your question," she backtracked, "yes, Mike is on our side, but the local PD massively mishandled the initial investigation. He's upset, and I don't blame him, but that's going to make any subsequent interviews that much harder. That's why I assigned myself to this interview too; he knows me, he knows I've been as frustrated as he has."

"Fair enough," Colby said with a small smile. "If the same thing happened to someone I cared about, I might not be feeling so cooperative myself. So," he added, "anything I should know right off the bat? Things to avoid mentioning?"

Alex smiled too. _Yeah, he gets it._ "The only thing -- I don't expect this to come up, but in case it does, Mike doesn't have any family, and it's not a pleasant topic for him. Best thing to do is not talk about it at all, even if the conversation seems to be leaning that way. Other than that...be gentle, but be direct. Being a cop himself, he'll recognize if you're tiptoeing around something, and he won't appreciate it. As long as you don't come off like you're accusing him of something, he'll give you a straight answer to a straight question."

"Tells it like it is, huh?" Colby nodded. "Sounds kind of like Don. It's gotten him in trouble a time or two."

"Only two?" Alex teased.

He laughed. "Yeah, well...maybe a little more than that." He shrugged. "Personally, I think it makes him better at his job, but the brass would rather we dance around things – unless we're talking to them, of course, then we better not spin anything."

"Don't I know it. I've known more than my share of good cops who ran into trouble because the NYPD brass didn't like the way they handled things. My first Captain in Major Case was nearly framed for a coverup that never happened, all because he didn't cover for a high-ranking bad cop. My partner was badmouthed for years over a similar incident."

Colby scoffed softly. "Yeah, short-term memory my ass."

Alex turned slightly to give him an odd look. "What?"

He reddened slightly. "Sorry, I was just thinking. It's something someone said to me once, a cop who was forced to retire after he crossed a couple lines. He said that at the top it's all short-term memory; they only remember the last thing you did. But I think he underestimates their ability to hold a grudge."

She chuckled. "Depends if they take it personally, I think. If it's a procedural thing, even a big one, that guy might be right. But if you cross them personally? They _never_ forget."

"Oh? Which were you?"

"How did you..."

He shrugged. "I'm not an FBI agent for nothing, you know."

She laughed. "I'm a whole other category. I swear they couldn't decide if they hated or loved me..."

xxxxxxxxx

The man who came to the door looked as though he hadn't slept in a week. The Lieutenant's face filled with compassion and concern as soon as she saw him. "Mike."

"Alex," he replied softly. "Is there...is there news? What's going on?"

"Nothing concrete, but we are working a new lead." Sympathy was evident in every word. "This is Agent Granger, he's working on Carolyn's case."

"Colby." He offered his hand to Mike, who hesitated for a moment and then shook it.

"Don't worry," Alex reassured him. "He's with me. Can we come in?"

"Yeah. Sure." Mike stepped back from the door, turning and walking towards the living room. "What do you need from me?"

"Information," Colby replied as all three of them found seats. "We think it's likely that whoever took her planned everything out in advance. What we need is to map her movements in the days leading up to her disappearance. If we can establish what and when, we might be able to extrapolate who."

Mike nodded, a firm determination filling his pained and tired face. "Okay."

"We have her work schedule from Alex," Colby began. "What we need details on are her movements outside work for the last few weeks. Do you always stay here?"

"Uh, no. A lot of times, it's much closer to work for both of us, but she still has her apartment. We've talked about moving in together when her lease ends, but we hadn't - we never made a decision."

"But she was headed here on the day she disappeared?" Mike nodded again, and Colby continued. "And you last spoke to her when?"

"About three that afternoon. I called her to ask if, um, if she was going to be getting off work on time. Damn," he added, "that sounds completely wrong when I say it out loud. Like I was keeping tabs on her or something."

"What _was_ it like?" Colby prompted.

He swallowed hard. "I'd had...I'd had a really bad day. I just wanted to know if I'd be able to see her that night. She understood that. She said everything looked good, she'd be here before six if she didn't hit traffic."

"And you tried to call her again when?"

"Around seven. I'm not the type to nitpick over a few minutes, but an hour's delay on what would normally be a twenty-minute drive seemed like a lot, and it's not like Carolyn not to let me know what's going on if there was a massive traffic jam or something. But it went straight to voicemail. I left a message, sent a text, and waited. When I didn't hear from her, I tried again, a couple of times. Then I called Alex, in case she knew anything."

"Which I didn't," the Lieutenant said softly.

"And, well, that's about it. I went to Missing Persons, that was a disaster, talked with Alex again, she said she'd try to handle it from the FBI end, and here we are."

"When you say Missing Persons was a disaster..."

"First they laughed. One of them tried to joke with me about putting on some kind of show for Alex. He, uh, implied some things about me and her which I almost decked him for."

Alex sat up a bit, surprised. "You didn't tell me that!"

He shrugged. "One of us needed to keep a cool head, and it wasn't going to be me."

Colby winced slightly. "I take it that wasn't exactly a good start to the interview."

"That's the understatement of the century. At the best of times, a comment like that would've been off-color, disrespectful to both of us, and to Carolyn and Bobby - that's Alex's fiance. To suggest that I'd cheat, or even think about it, when I'd come to them for help finding my girlfriend - well, he should be grateful I've learned to rein in my temper a bit. There was a time I would've swung first and thought later."

Colby couldn't help but laugh. "I know a thing or two about that. So," he continued more soberly, "what happened next?"

"Well, once he realized I wasn't playing his game, he got annoyed at me for wasting his time. Said I was overreacting. It devolved from there. Alex had to intervene and walk me out before things got completely out of hand."

"No great loss," she put in. "The other detective was busy treating me like a hysterical woman who'd gone off the rails."

"The callousness is bad enough on its own," Mike said bitterly. "But the time they wasted not investigating, if that turns out to have made a difference, I don't know what I might be capable of."

"Let's not go there right now," Colby said firmly, but with a comforting tone underlying the words nonetheless. "You've got ten good officers working on this case now, and they will be doing everything they can to find her."

Mike started slightly at the number, but the reassurance had the desired effect, and he relaxed a bit. "I'll hold you to that."

Colby responded with a kind smile. "Let's back up a bit. The days before Carolyn's disappearance - I assume that if you'd noticed anyone following you, you'd already have mentioned it."

Mike nodded, smiling a bit too despite himself. He was beginning to like the agent, seeing similarities much like the one Colby had observed.

"What about public places? Has she been anywhere lately where someone might have picked up a trail?"

"No, I don't think so," he said after a moment's thought. "We haven't really been out much. Carolyn's been working long hours and by the time she's done she just wants to stay in."

"Let me ask you this. How difficult would it be for a random member of the public, someone who's interested but who you don't know directly, to figure out that you and Carolyn are a couple?"

He considered this. "I'm not sure. Probably not that hard. I mean, we haven't made some big announcement, but we're not secretive about it. And," he added, "people might not know that we're dating, but still know there's a connection between us. Carolyn and I were partners on the force for about a year before she went back over to the FBI, we got our names in the paper a time or two over a high-profile case."

"And what do you do? I've never known a retired cop who could just sit back and let life pass them by."

"Private firm," he replied, smiling at Colby's comment. "My old Captain on the force runs it, pretty much all his employees are retired NYPD."

"Anything especially public, something that might call attention to you?"

Mike suddenly sat bolt upright, eyes going wide. "Oh, my God."

"What?" Colby pressed gently. "You think of something?"

"Not work," he said, still sounding shocked. "Last week, I spent a couple of days testifying in a criminal trial. Open court."

Colby was nodding slowly. "What kind of case?"

"Child abuse." He couldn't bring himself to elaborate; just thinking about the details made him want to be sick. "I was the one who called 911, so I was asked to testify. The day Carolyn disappeared was the second and last day of my testimony for this case; I was really drained from an especially rough cross, that's why I called her. But there were multiple perps involved in this case, it's not my first time taking the stand about what I saw. I gave the same testimony in another trial about three weeks ago. Oh, God," he said again. "And I wouldn't have noticed someone watching me because everyone was watching me."

"It's not your fault." Alex rose from her seat to stand beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "If they did tail you to find her, they were clearly waiting for any possible opportunity."

"She's right," Colby added. "Someone who goes to that level of trouble would have just found another way."

"Who's the ADA on the case?" Alex asked, hoping to focus him away from guilt. "Maybe they noticed something."

"Um, Barba. Rafael Barba."

"Okay, we'll talk to him." Alex squeezed his shoulder gently. "Hang in there, Mike. We're doing everything we can."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone couldn't guess, Zach and Charlie knowing each other was pretty much always a plan for this story. The similarities between Mike Logan and Colby Granger, however, are almost entirely incidental, just things I thought of as I was writing the chapter.
> 
> The scene with Alex, Cho, and Don was basically an excuse for me to explain the Mentalist and Numb3rs characters for any readers not familiar with those shows (since this is largely a L&O 'verse series). Cho's mention of a time where Jane was right and kept them from doing something they'd regret is mainly a reference to the episode Nothing Gold Can Stay, where Jane talks down several suspects that the team was ready to kill; I always thought that in that scene, he was the one in the right, and I feel like Cho would eventually come down enough from the feelings in the moment to recognize that.
> 
> The comment Colby mentions about short-term memory was made by Roger Bloom in "Greatest Hits".
> 
> The mention of Alex's captain and partner (Deakins and Goren) getting on the wrong side of the police department are references to the episodes My Good Name and Amends respectively.


End file.
